Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood

I read something in "Battling Unbelief" by John Piper the other night and it really got me thinking. He was talking about how believing, if we view that as agreeing with certain facts, does not equal the same thing as... finding satisfaction in something. In the Bible, Jesus talks about being the Bread of Life and about being Living Water. He said crazy things like, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you". What does that mean? He didn't say, unless you believe that I am the Bread of Life. He said, "Consume me! Let Me satisfy your hunger and thirst." There's something about consuming, enjoying, experiencing, partaking in, being satisfied by God that goes way above and beyond just agreeing with facts.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I know it helps put words to the typical discontented feeling I have towards Christianity in general when it is reduced to believing certain statements and doing certain behaviors. There doesn't seem to be anything life-giving in that. But, in those times when I question where the substance of those things lies, I remember the stories of Jesus talking with the lady from Samaria, and Him telling her, "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again." There's something satisfying and filling that we should experience with God that goes so much deeper than thinking that something is true. I believe we landed on the moon (mostly) and the Bible says that demons believe in God and tremble at Him... so there has to be more to Christianity than assenting to a set of ideas.